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April 18, 2018

India-Russia close to inking warship deal

Moving closer towards buying four advanced warships for the Navy, India
has finalised the price of the vessels to be bought directly from Russia
at around USD 1.1 billion while Defence Ministry is pushing for
conclusion of the contract for the remaining two vessels which would be
built by the Goa Shipyard under Make in India programme.

The
warships are being acquired from Russia as the Navy wanted to enhance
its blue water capabilities by inducting four state-of-the-art warships
equipped with the deadly BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles in the
earliest possible timeframe.

After Defence Minister Nirmala
Sitharamans visit to Russia, the Russian and Indian sides have completed
the price negotiations for the Russian material to be supplied to the
Goa Shipyards at around USD 200 million. The Indian negotiators have
also managed to get a discount of 18 per cent in the contract,
government sources said.

After Sitharamans push to the programme,
a Russian team had come at the Defexpo-2018 in Chennai and held
discussions for price during the exhibition and continued it in Delhi in
the last two days, they said.

The Defence Minister had visited
Russia earlier this month where she discussed multiple military
cooperation programmes between the two countries.

The Indian side
in the discussions is led by a Joint Secretary-level official of the
Defence Ministry. The Russian shipyard involved in the project is
Yantar.

The negotiations for the cost of the warships to be built
at the Goa Shipyards will continue and it is expected that the
programme would be finalised in next couple of months, the sources said.

According
to the plan, the defence ministry wants to go the Cabinet Committee on
Security with a combined proposal including the cost of the Russian
supplied and the Made in India vessels together, the sources said.